*Double Take Dept: Apparently, Grant Morrison is not writing Batman for a 4-issue stretch starting in December. Perhaps the whole ‘writing four and one quarter series at once’ thing is starting to weigh down? Or maybe Kubert is slowing up, and DC doesn’t want to risk a fill-in unless it's a total fill-in. Curious. On the plus side, looks like Doom Patrol Vol. 5: Magic Bus is coming out double-quick (January 3rd), collecting issues #51-57. On the minus side, they’ve scaled back the size a bit, leveling out the content - won’t be much room for extras in Vol. 6.

*A little slower - aren't you glad - but a few very interesting tidbits,

THIS WEEK IN COMICS!

In the Studio: Visits With Contemporary Cartoonists: From Todd Hignite, founding editor of Comic Art, comes this huge (320 pages), profusely-illustrated (499 color images) collection/expansion of his magazine's old In the Studio feature, published by Yale University Press. I don't think $29.95 cover will be too much to spend for a suite of chats and working environment tours with Ivan Brunetti, Charles Burns, Dan Clowes, Robert Crumb, Jaime Hernandez, Gary Panter, Seth, Art Spiegelman, and Chris Ware, even if you already own the half of it that showed up in Comic Art. Preview looks really sweet. Probably one of the year's bigger 'behind the comics' books.

Nog a Dod: Prehistoric Canadian Psyckedooolia: Edited by Marc Bell, this new PictureBox collection represents a retrospective look at a decade of collaborative projects among a tightly-knit group of monatomic and art object oriented Canadian cartoonists. Plenty of psychedelic, underground-influenced visions and absurdist humor, I expect. A whopping 288 pages, mostly color, for $25. More info at PictureBox’s site, if you click on the Catalog tab.

C'est Bon Anthology Vol. 1: Also in collections of various artists, here’s a book-format revamp of a 2004-05 Swedish comics magazine, which itself was an extension of a 2001-04 publication simply known as C’est Bon. Cover by Brian Wood, with a roster featuring Ho Che Anderson and R. Kikuo Johnson, along with many more in its 140 pages, b&w with some color, for $21. 95. It’s worthwhile to just click around the C’est Bon Kultur site, checking out samples and gawking at things.

Following Cerebus #9: As usual, this fascinating publication, produced by Craig Miller & John Thorne, doesn’t as much directly follow Cerebus as whatever Dave Sim & Gerhard happen to be interested in. Which is why this issue sees the magazine temporarily transform into a square-bound, 60+ page, $8.95 tribute to Neal Adams. Why Neal Adams? No no - why not Neal Adams? So, plenty of Neal Adams here, and surely a bunch of Dave Sim, and maybe Gerhard, and I expect Cerebus will get discussed at some point as well.

The Looking Glass Wars: Hatter M #3 (of 4): More from one of the three titles Ben Templesmith is currently providing interior art for, this one a sidestory set in the world of Frank Beddor’s series of young adult prose novels, the first of which is set to debut in the US later this month. I’ll have a prerelease review up tomorrow.

The Quitter: Hot off the debut of the new American Splendor miniseries, Vertigo slips ya a new softcover version of the 2005 graphic novel by writer Harvey Pekar and artist Dean Haspiel, in case you’re in the mood for more spending. Contrary to what Vertigo’s site claims, it’s actually $12.99, not $104.00.

George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead: Back From the Grave: Undeterred by DC’s snapping up of their New Line licenses, Avatar soldiers forth into another zone of horror, a series of official prequel comics to the landmark zombie classic. This is a 16-page color preview book, albeit one with an exclusive story, which explains why it’s only $2.99. From actual NOTLD co-writer John Russo, with the reliable Sebastian Fiumara providing the art.

Escape of the Living Dead: Airborne #1 (of 3): Meanwhile, since no zombie should stagger out alone, Avatar’s other Russo-conceived zombie series switches to Mike Wolfer for scripting, as artist Dheeraj Verma returns. A busload of hippies battles a horde of zombies in Pennsylvania’s woods, as a bloodthirsty flower-child zombie messiah emerges.

Wetworks: Worldstorm #1: Oh, surely I can’t be the only one to sense the irony in Wetworks being the first Wildstorm Universe revival title to ship, due to a different title being late. You can’t make stuff like this up. So, while the world waits on Grant Morrison and Jim Lee, the charge will be led by Mike Carey and Whilce Portacio. The preview depicts a hulking badass with miscellaneous cybernetic thingies on his face teaming up with a midriff-baring woman with a blade, so it looks like not a ton has changed since I first stared at Wetworks ads back in 1993. Everyone is wearing black leather trenchcoats! Awesome!

Blade #1: New from Marvel, the book Howard Chaykin left Hawkgirl for, though he still has an issue of that left in the pipeline to polish off the current storyline. Also featuring writer Marc Guggenheim, of CSI: Miami and the Civil War tie-in issues of Wolverine. The preview reveals a visual style even more laid-back than what we’ve seen in Hawkgirl - I suppose Chaykin is trying to develop a sleek, simpler, superhero-ready variant on his usual visual approach, though it’s not as appealing as his more feverish work to me. Still: Blade kills vampire school kids.

Dwight T. Albatross’ The Goon Noir #1 (of 3): In which Dark Horse goes the ‘all-star anthology’ route for another of their creator-owned series (see: Hellboy, Grendel). This one’s b&w, and the first issue features work by Patton Oswald & Mike Ploog, Steve Niles & Ryan Sook, Bill Morrison, and more.

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #8: Honestly, I’ve completely forgotten what’s going on in this storyline - they’re all sort of a blur of explosions and quips, you know?

52 #20 (of 52): Kevin Nowlan shows up for the origin of Adam Strange, as Lobo, Pope of Space leads the faithful through the desert of stars.